She Noticed
by Professor Cheesecake
Summary: After her brother's life is saved, Starr begins to notice there's more to life than a popularity contest...
1. An Unlikely Saviour

He screamed.

"Oh, shut up, will you?" said the ghost up above him.

He screamed louder.

The ice cracked beneath his small, six year old figure. He looked to the shore of the lake, where his older sister, Starr, stood terrified, crying, begging desperately for anybody to help him. Nobody could. Not without putting him in even more danger, that is. All they could do was wait for the emergency services to arrive.

He looked up at the mean ghost that had placed him there, with its evil cape and its evil big pointy hairdo. He looked back to the shore. Tears blurred his eyes. _It's so far away..._

The ghost, as if it were psychic, looked down at him and grinned evilly. "And just where is your little hero, Danny Phantom now? Does he just not care that this poor little boy is about to be dropped into the icy depths of the lake?"

In reality, he wasn't all that far from shore. He was just far enough from it that nobody could reach him. Any move that they made on the ice would be fatal to him.

He saw people moving, clearing a path. Was he going to be saved? Had 9-1-1 arrived?

A boy ran out onto the lake. That wasn't 9-1-1...his eyes widened. Now they were _both_ going to die!

To his surprise, the boy grabbed him, and, too fast to notice, he was flying! He thumped into his older sister, who gave a cry of surprise, but held on to him tight.

"Even better!" cried the ghost, and he heard a splash. He turned. There was a big hole in the ice. The boy who saved him was nowhere to be seen.

He looked up at Starr, whose eyes were as wide as saucers.

"Fenton..." she breathed.


	2. Blemish Free

**Hello, people of Fanfiction! Sorry if the story is slow going, and if the chapters are short. I don't want to make them so long that they start getting repetitive and stupid, but I don't like them being so short. And sorry that there was no Authors Note last chapter; you see, I've never posted a story before, and it's slightly confuzzling for little ol' me. And for that, I thank Deadlydaisy808: for taking the time to answer my crazy questions, and then I suddenly figured out how to add a new chapter. SORRY DEADLYDAISY808 (By the way, I love the penname. Those flowers can kill :p).**

**Well, thanks for reading, thanks for the reviews. They're really nice (mind you, I'm not the type who thanks specific reviewers in the author's notes unless it's the very last chapter, sorry to disappoint.)**

**Oh, and I'm sure people have been waiting for me to say this (because I forgot to in the last chapter):**

**I don't own Danny Phantom. Hope you're thrilled (If you are, you're really easily satisfied).**

**Aaaand, ACTION!**

It was silent around the lake, as the seconds ticked by, without so much as a ripple in the water that indicated that the dark haired saviour was alive or not.

Seconds turned into minutes.

Minutes felt like years.

A splash, a gasp for air, and the crowd started moving as suddenly as if somebody had pressed the 'Un-pause' button on the remote.

Starr tried to get closer to the boy, see if it really was that Fenton kid, maybe it was somebody else who always wore a hoodie and had dark hair, and was that short...but she and Davey, who was still cradled in her arms, were constantly pushed back by adults who either thought that they had more to do with it than they did, or wrongly assumed that they could actually do something to help.

An ambulance arrived at last, news reporters following them. She just barely managed to catch a glimpse of the Fenton kid-if he really was the Fenton kid, that is-being loaded into the ambulance. He was desperately trying to hide his face from the camera's being shoved into it. Starr smiled slightly. At least that meant he was somewhat okay...

Starr managed to walk home, hand in hand with Davey, when the crowd dispersed. Their parents were already anxiously waiting at the door, having seen them on the news already. They hugged their children so tight it felt like they were going to break, and talked to them for what felt like hours to Starr. Davey was excitedly explaining every tiny detail about the incident to them. Starr simply sat on the couch, staring off into the distance.

Was that really Fenton? Who else could it be? Whoever it was, she owed him. Hey, he'd just saved her little brother's life-risking his own!

Eventually, she just went to bed early. She figured that if Fenton was at school tomorrow, then it probably wasn't him.

But then, he had been okay enough to shoo away all those reporters. Star groaned into her pillow. She'd ask him. It was that simple. She'd ask.

Starr walked through the halls with Paulina; no, wait, scratch that, Paulina walked through the halls with Starr. Starr had long ago learned the difference. She knew that her classmates knew that, too. They called her 'the Satellite'. She pretended not to care. She pretended that she loved being Paulina's sidekick. It had become second nature for her.

Paulina started towards her boyfriend, Dash Baxter, who was just finishing shoving some geek into his locker. Starr thought she caught a glimpse of blue eyes shadowed by black hair and a hoodie.

She gasped. Dash and Paulina ignored her as they went all mushy-gushy. She hated to interrupt, but she felt she had to.

"Um, Dash? Who did you just shove into your locker?"

Dash and Paulina looked her as if she'd grown an extra head. "Just Fentina, why do you care?"

Starr blinked. He was at school? And he hadn't told everybody about his heroic swim yesterday?

"Eh, heh heh, no reason." She replied nervously, "I'm going to go to class. See you later!" She quickly walked off, leaving a bewildered Paulina and Dash behind.

She sat down in English, waiting desperately for class to start. Now that she was away from Paulina, everybody was asking about the incident. She just wanted to get away from their stupid questions; she was frequently denying that she knew who the saviour was, answering in only very short answers.

Finally, the bell rang, and Mr Lancer made everybody go back to their seats. She looked around. That was weird. Fenton was supposed to be in this class. But wasn't he always late? She wouldn't really know, though, she never really paid much attention.

About ten minutes into class, Fenton finally stumbled in. He looked tired and worn. Mr Lancer looked up at the boy briefly and sighed.

"Detention, Mr Fenton, you're ten minutes late this time, do you realize?"

"Yes, sir," replied the boy.

Starr was startled at how commonplace this was. She really needed to start paying attention.

He sat down, and Starr noticed a nasty bruise on his forehead. Had Dash done that to him? Ouch.

Something stopped Starr from asking him. Maybe it was her popularity; maybe it was the fact that he seemed so tired. Maybe it was that, if it really was him who had saved Davey, he probably would have told everybody already. Kids like him always wanted their chance at fame, and saving a life, especially the brother of somebody in the A-list, would guarantee a spot in it.

The bell eventually rang, and she glanced at Fenton again, and her eyes widened.

His forehead was perfectly clear of any bruises.

"Starr?"

"Davey, go away..."

"Starr?"

"Mmh. Go away."

"But Starr!"

"Davey, I said-"

"Starr, don't be rude to your brother."

Starr sighed, and raised her head from the couch. She was tired; Mrs Tetslaff had decided to disperse of the people asking her questions the only way she knew how: by making them run as far as they could possibly go without puking.

"What do you want, Davey?"

"I'm bored."

Starr rolled her eyes. Of course he was bored; he'd stayed home from school today because of yesterday's 'adventure'.

"Davey, I'm tired. Go make your saviour a thank-you card, or something."

Davey brightened, and ran off to grab paper and pens without another word. Starr considered going up to her bedroom, but decided against it. The couch was so soft and cushy... she imagined her own hero, preferably Danny Phantom, saving her from a ghost fight...she was flying through the air, Paulina was ever so jealous...he took her out to some island that he'd made his own and turned to speak to her, and she joked back...he was flying her to prom... he was telling her how beautiful she looked in her dress, and she leaned up...they were so close...he leaned in to k-

"Starr!"

Starr was so startled that she fell off the couch, blushing.

"What. Do. You. Want." She growled, anything but thrilled by her fantasy being interrupted. She didn't exactly fancy Phantom, but merely the idea of having a guy care for her so much. And maybe making Paulina the teensiest bit jealous...

"Who was it that saved me? You looked like you knew him."

Starr's anger turned into surprise as the six year old gazed down at her curiously.

"I...err, Davey, I'm not sure. I'm sorry..."

"But you said something about a Fence! And you were talking about the boy!"

"Fence? What are you talking ab...oh..." Fence. Fenton. She giggled.

"Davey, I meant to say Fenton. As in, Danny Fenton? The los..." she stopped when she saw the look on pure delight on his face. As annoying as the little guy was, he _was_ her brother. "Yeah," she finished lamely. "Danny."

Davey ran off, and she knew that tomorrow would be a long day...

**And that's that! For now, at least. Four pages, wheeeeeeee! It was originally supposed to end at "his forehead was clear of any bruises", but I figured it was kinda short. So, now it ain't! **

**By the way, I would love to hear your assumptions of how Davey's card will look like, and how embarrassed Starr is going to be to give it to Danny. If she even does, that is...**


	3. The Card

**Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit's here! At last! The chapter you've been waiting for for far too long!**

**I had writers block. Then inspiration struck. That simple. **

**So, enjoy! And now I can't do a longer note because I have to go to dinner.**

It used to be a piece of plain white paper. A piece of paper that was going to end up having some sort of school or work assignment printed on it via the printer.

Then a very grateful six year old got a hold of it.

First, it was folded. Then, vibrant colours coated it, mainly red, orange and yellow. Next came the blues. Small hands pressed every variety of the primary colour all over the page, signifying water and ice, the darker blues outlines for a six year olds attempt at people, and writing. 'ThanNk YOu dannY', read the outside of it. When it was opened, a picture of Superman printed off the internet with help from the artist's parental figure was messily glued inside. Neat, adult writing was part of the inside, reading, 'Thank you for saving my son. We could never repay that.'

Starr only wished that it wasn't so _bright_.

It wasn't that she wasn't grateful. She was very grateful that her brother was alive (although she already wished that maybe he could've lost his voice from all the screaming he'd done); just that, it would be absolutely humiliating if it wasn't really Fenton. And right now, as he picked himself up from the hallway floor, she had a feeling that it wasn't.

Paulina laughed at him, and Dash threw insults at him that Starr wasn't paying attention to. She was paying attention to the card in her pocket. Maybe, if she found a way to erase the 'dannY' part of the card, figure out who the _real_ hero was, and write his name on it, her family would be satisfied. Maybe they'd be disappointed that it wasn't who they thought it was, but, hey, better than giving it to Fenton and having somebody as lame as _him_ laugh at her.

But she knew that she certainly didn't want to keep the card forever. Whoever it was for, they certainly earned it.

The week went by very slowly. Davey always pounced on her when she came home, begging to know whether his hero had gotten his well-deserved card, and Starr felt worse and worse as she told him no, she hadn't given it to him yet.

"But _Starr_! He's at your _school_! Aren't you _friends_?"

Starr shook her head. "No, Davey. He's just in my English class."

Davey looked at her, surprised, and...Was that disappointment?

"Oh." He said. Yep. Disappointment to the extreme. "Well, can you give it to him soon, though?" Starr now felt absolutely horrible for telling him that they weren't friends. He was choosing his words so carefully. "I mean, even if you don't like him? I just wanted to say thanks." The little blonde boy stared down at his feet, and Starr crouched down in front of him.

"Davey," she began. Now it was her turn to choose her words carefully. "I promise I will give Fen-I mean, Danny the card as soon as humanly possible. I just...I just need to, you know, _find_ him."

Davey nodded, disbelieving, and turned away, opting to go play with his toy cars instead.

Starr sighed. Well, if she was going to find Fenton and give him a card, it might as well be when she wasn't in school with Paulina right there to laugh at her. And she _did_ say as fast as humanly possible...

"Mom, I'm going out!" She called, and, without waiting for an answer, she practically ran out the front door. It was dark already, seeing as it was still winter, but she didn't really care...

She had a little brother to make proud.

She walked through the trees. It was only the third shortcut she'd taken on the way to Fentonworks. It wasn't like she was trying to get there too late to talk to Fenton; she wasn't a coward like that...

She growled at herself. What could she do to stop herself from avoiding him? She looked down at the card.

Apparently, nothing.

She sighed. Well, she figured, if she wasn't going to go to Fenton's, she might as well head home. She turned on her heel. She hadn't walked more than a few feet, when she heard a voice.

Chills ran down her spine. The voice was quiet, and wasn't even talking to her, in fact, the tone of voice implied that whoever it was didn't even know she was there. It seemed to be a nice voice...however; Starr still couldn't find any appeal in meeting with some random person in the middle of the night in the cold woods.

'_Stupid, stupid, stupid_,' She thought, '_what were you thinking, taking this_ "Short Cut"?' Slowly, she turned on her heel, trying to listen to whatever the voice was saying.

"...food right here, aren't you hungry, little guy? Come on..."

The voice sounded familiar. Where had she heard it before?

Slowly but surely, she followed her ears to it. First she saw a little badger, smaller than her cat Cheshire, obviously scared and hurt. A few feet away from the small animal...

"Come on, my friend'll patch you up real nice, how's about it, little guy?" Fenton was crouched down, holding out a little piece of celery for the scared badger. Her heart melted. Maybe he was the person who saved Davey. Unless she was hallucinating, Fenton seemed to have a knack for saving people.

"The big mean ghost isn't coming back, don't worry, he's gone, you can trust me," coaxed Fenton, and the badger took a tentative step forward, gingerly placing its weight on one of its paws.

Ghost? Starr knew ghost attacks were frequent in Amity Park, and that Fenton's parents were eccentric ghost hunters, but she never realized that their son had anything to do with it. Maybe he'd just watched...that's what it looked like.

She didn't know how long she was there, watching, but couldn't stop herself from being fascinated as the boy slowly managed to get the badger cradled up in his arms, munching the celery hungrily. It tensed visibly as he stood up, but relaxed again soon.

Starr's breath stopped as Fenton looked exactly at her little hiding place, and smiled. "You can come out, now. I know you've been watching." He said.

Starr's jaw dropped. How had he known? She'd been quieter than Cheshire on carpet! She stood up, and now it was Fenton's turn to look surprised.

"Starr? What are you doing-?"

"I thought you knew it was me." She said, raising an eyebrow.

"We-ell, I sorta thought you were my sister, I mean, she does that..."

He stopped as the badger in his arms squirmed, and he took a second to calm it down, as Starr watched, captivated again.

He looked up again when the badger was somewhat relaxed. "So, uh, what _are_ you doing here, spying on me?"

She shifted uncomfortably. "I was looking for you, actually..." she mumbled quietly. She half-hoped he couldn't hear her. She didn't want to look stupid in front of somebody so low on the food chain.

He blinked, and carefully, so as to not disturb the badger in his arms, reached up and grabbed a lock of his black hair, stared at it for a second, and then looked back at a now very confused Starr.

"You were looking for _me_?" he asked. Starr nodded.

"I wanted to ask, you know, to really know, if maybe it was you who saved my brother's life last week, you know, because he was going to fall through the ice and then a person who looked like you ran out and saved him and I didn't know if it was you because you're, you're _you_, and not a hero, I mean, I didn't think you were, and you were falling in the hallway and I-"

"Starr." She shut up, looking up at the boy, ears going red. He was silent for a moment. "Well, uh, first of all, well, yeah, that was me," he began quietly, "and, also, errs...well, I... I just don't like being noticed all that much." He admitted. Starr stared at him incredulously, no longer embarrassed.

"You're joking, right?" she asked. He shook his head. "Do you have any _idea_ how much I would give to be more popular? If I'd saved somebody's life, I would _so_ tell somebody!"

He shrugged. "I'm a weird kid with weird parents, weird friends, and a really weird life. And I used to care about popularity. But...well, I just plain don't."

Starr stood there, dumbfounded.

"Uh, can we get going? I mean, I need to get this badger to Sam, so she can help it...I mean, if you want to come, that is, you don't have to..." Fenton asked nervously.

"O-oh! Right." She said, surprised. "Um, yeah. I'll, uh, leave you to it. So. Yeah. S-see you at school...maybe..." she said, turning around to go home. She felt like an idiot. For talking to a loser-even if he did save her little brother's life, a _week_ had already passed, and she'd already said thank you, didn't that count? Plus, she was sounding like she cared. She wasn't supposed to care; Paulina already had her on a short rope for keeping contact with Valerie, but _Fenton_? He was Dash's punching bag, practically an inanimate object. If word got out...

If word got out.

Starr's eyes widened and she whirled around to face Fenton's retreating figure. "_Fenton_!" she all but screamed.

He jumped, startling the badger cradling up to him. He took a second to calm it down, before looking up at her. She couldn't see him all that well in the dark, but she had the feeling that his expression resembled that of Mr Lancer when somebody interrupted his reading sessions.

"This. _Never_. Happened. Alright? To _anybody_." She said, venom lacing her voice. Again, she couldn't see him very well, but he seemed to look slightly amused, and annoyed at the same time.

"What never happened? Wait, where did you come from?" Ok, dark or no dark, she knew the big, cheeky smirk plastered on his face. She huffed, and then hurried home.

"Annoying little loser, pretending I don't exist, holding a stupid badger-that's creepy, anyway!" she mumbled to herself as she walked down the familiar streets to her home. "Doesn't deserve the card that Davey made, I shouldn't have given it to him, no, I should have ripped it...wait..." she stopped, right before her front steps. She carefully put her hand into her pocket, and then drew it back out, colourful piece of paper now held inside of it.

"Gahhh! No, no, no, no, no, no!" She yelled.

"Vroom, vroom, errrrch!" Davey thought he was very good at sound effects. His car sounds sounded really, really, real. Hardly anybody was as good as him when making a car crash.

"Oh no!" he narrated in a whisper, so he wouldn't scare the teeny-tiny people driving his cars, "there's a big pile up on aisle nine! Nobody's going to make it out until the helicopter comes! Ahhhh!"

He looked around. Where did his helicopter go?

He was distracted by the sound of yelling outside. He looked up, his parents doing the same. The door opened, and in stomped his sister.

"Mommy says no stomping in the house." He warned. She looked at him, looking really mean, before walking up to her room angrily.

"Starr-!" called his mommy.

"Don't ask!" came the reply from up the stairs. He shrugged, and turned up to his cars.

** Heh heh. I still want to know how you think she'll give the card to him. If I like your suggestion, I just might use it!**

**(Oh, yeah, I almost forgot to tell you: I don't own Danny Phantom. I am not Butch Hartman in disguise. Because I'm sure that Butch Hartman is not a fourteen year old girl.)**


	4. Ew, Orange

**...**

**This took way too long. Mind you, I had writers block for a long, long time, but still. I hope that you take this as an apology...**

**Part of the reason why it took so long to write was because, well, I really don't know what girls like Paulina and Starr _do _in their spare time (Yes. This is a cry for help, in case anybody knows what they do...the only other things I can think of is cheerleader practice and dating). **

**Well, enjoy what I've written (because, if you ask me, it is one of the best pieces of writing I've done in a while).**

**(I don't own Danny Phantom.)**

Paulina and Starr smirked as a brunette with glasses, freckles and braces walked from the room sniffling, trying to hide her tears.

"So, anyway," Paulina said, continuing the conversation that the new girl had so _rudely_ interrupted, "don't go out with Alec. He's got braces-I mean, hell-_o_? If you go out with him, he'll have to join the A-list, and A-listers _don't have braces_." She began examining her nails-pink, with little stars and hearts decorated on them. "We have those...err, what are they called? Inviso-line? Y'know, the see-through things. They work so much better." She looked back to Starr. "And if we _do_ have them, we don't tell anybody. Got it?"

Starr nodded, used to this behaviour. A new lesson with every new subject-as if Paulina was a teacher to an exceptionally dumb student. She didn't mind though, or else she'd never stay on top of the A-list.

"So, can we go to the mall now? I have my eye on a really cute bracelet; its little itty bits of sea-shells, except they're all like, straight and stuff-"

"Alright, alright."

Starr excitedly searched for the bracelet while Paulina was talking about how annoying and unfashionable those _stupid_ winter jackets they all had to wear were. Rack after rack, the bracelet _had_ to be there _somewhere_.

"They're so _puffy_; I don't see why _anyone_ should wear them..."

"Uh huh." Muttered Starr. Was that one it? No, the one she wanted was turquoise-y, not orange...why did they make them in orange, anyway? It looked awful.

"But my _papa_ won't let me go to school without it, I mean, maybe I should just take it off when I'm out of sight, but Dash usually has picked me up by then, anyway..."

"Interesting..." Starr dragged out the 'n' like she always did when she was preoccupied. Paulina didn't notice.

That one was pink and plastic and it looked fit for a five year old. Starr grimaced and moved away from it, looking for the turquoise one.

"If _only_ they would make something that was actually cute, and, like, _not_ puffy. There is no point to puffy."

"Yep..."

Starr paused for a second in her search for the turquoise bracelet. Wasn't the puffy for keeping you warm?

"By the way, did you hear about Mathew? He totally likes you."

Starr made a face. "Um, yeah, he kept winking at me like a perv."

"Oh, really? Ew. Stay away from him then."

"Uh huh."

Paulina was trying to think of another topic to talk about, when Starr saved her the trouble.

"Found it!" she cried, delighted.

"Found what?"

She held up the bracelet she'd been searching for, in all its turquoise-y goodness. She slid it on her wrist, modeling it for her friend.

Paulina looked at it in distaste. "In that colour?" she made a face. "Starr, I know you sometimes make bad decisions, but..."

Starr's face fell. She had really liked the bracelet, and had thought it looked really nice against her pale skin.

Even Paulina recognized that look of disappointment, and she pointed at the rack. "Oh, Starr, look at that one! It looks the same, but its colour looks so much better on you, see?"

She reached for the rack, and to Starr's horror, she held up the awful orange one she'd made a note of avoiding. But she was with Paulina.

She forced a smile onto her face, taking off the turquoise one and slipping the orange one on her wrist. She blinked at it for a second, almost as if to wonder why it was there.

"Yeah. Thanks." Her voice sounded sort of dead-like...and not the good kind, where you'd hear laughter in it, because it was Danny Phantom's. But somehow, Paulina mistook it for unstoppable enthusiasm, and dragged her to the counter to pay for it.

"Three ninety-nine," said the girl working the register, bored, "and we're having a sale on nail polish if you spend more than six dollars on anything else, if you're interested."

Starr wanted to decline-she felt done with shopping for the day, she wanted to go home and...Paint her nails or something, but with polish she _already_ had-but Paulina smiled and went to browse for more accessories, so as to take advantage of that sale.

Ten dollars and sparkly blue nail polish later ("Sort of like Edward Cullen, right Starr?" ... "What about a fairy?" "Who _cares_ about fairies anymore, Starr, what are you, five?") They were walking back home, talking about how annoying Lancer was, how unnecessary their puffy jackets were (again, more pronounced now that they had to wear them; although even wearing them looked better than-dare she think of it-_carrying_ them), Paulina's new Justin Bieber CD, and how painful heels were; and how worth it the pain was.

"I mean, if you were, like, with a hot guy like Dash-_not that you will ever be with Dash_-" Paulina scolded before she carried on, as if Starr had the intention of stealing the jock away from her, "it might be worth it, but if you were like, with, like, Danny Fenton, then, um, I'd take off the heels and hit him with it."

The two laughed.

"What about a wedding?" Starr asked.

"Ew, what are you going to do at a wedding? Starr, weddings are for people who are too uptight to just move in with their boyfriends."

"What if you get together with Danny Phantom?"

"He's a ghost. He's not allowed to get married. We'll just go out dancing and stuff, if we want to dress up."

Paulina's tone-strictly business, as if it was pre-planned and nothing would stop this unlikely chain of events-surprised Starr. "What about Dash? If Danny Phantom turns up, what will you do with Dash?"

Paulina looked at Starr incredulously. Her Spanish accent seemed more pronounced when she began speaking, as it always did when she became annoyed with her blonde 'satellite.' "Stop saying if."

Starr shut up.

"Anyway," continued the Latina, "Dash knows that if Danny Phantom shows up, then he won't be important. He even agreed to it."

Starr ogled at her friend. "Really? How'd you get him to do that?"

"Really easily, actually. I just told him, and he said yes."

"Wow. If I said that to a boy..." Starr trailed off, mentally cringing at the disastrous events that would occur if even tried.

Paulina scoffed. "He'd laugh, duh! Because _you_ don't have Danny Phantom to look forward to."

"Right."

Starr walked through the door, and took off her (puffy) jacket, and hung it up, before turning around to find Davey sitting cross-legged on the floor, staring at her mournfully. Quickly and quietly getting over her urge to yelp, she decided to stare at him for a minute.

After a while, when he just stared at her sadly, she spoke.

"What do _you_ want?"

Davey blinked his large, blue eyes, before holding up the piece of paper she hadn't noticed he'd had in his hands.

Starr blinked at it.

A strange silence (very strange, considering that the people that occupied it were a usually over-excited six year old and a fifteen year old who couldn't put her phone down) filled the room.

"..._so_...?"

"Starr, you forgot it."

Starr looked at him as if he were crazy. "Davey, are you, like, trying to be deep or something? Aren't you six?"

Davey's expression changed to one of anger, something Starr was much more used to. "Starr! It's the card I made for Danny! I made it for him! You said you'd give it to him!"

Starr suddenly felt something 'click' inside her head. Of course Davey was upset, his card made for the boy who saved his life was ignored, and the person who deserved it hadn't gotten it.

But Starr was also upset. Davey had said thank you, she'd even _risked her reputation_ by talking to him-in the _woods_, at _night_, no less-while he was holding a stinking badger! She'd done enough, the card was really nothing but for show anymore, it didn't matter! He'd said so himself he couldn't care less about popularity, why should it be up to her to ruin her own just so her brother could say something as silly as a 'thank you' that had already been said three weeks ago...in the woods, at night, in the presence of a badger.

Starr glared it her brother. "Why don't you mail it to him, if you want him to have it so bad?" she said, in tones of ice.

"But-!"

"_I don't care!"_

**Alright! There you have it! If you don't want to read shameless advertising and me blabbing about my "muse" (if you could call it that), then I suggest you leave now...but it'd be nice if you reviewed before y'did.**

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**So, my friend Alex found on a site called Hexrpg(dot)com people talking about "Hildegarde" which would be a wizarding school in North America (apparently it's in the Yukon, in Canada, but we're keeping it vague) and decided, "Hey, wouldn't it be cool if _we _went there?" **

** Well, we can't do that, so we did the next best thing, which is write a story about if we did. We made sure to include actual characters from the Harry Potter series (mainly George and Charlie Weasley) and so Robyn (me-that's my real name) and Ethan (that's Alex-he thought it was weird writing about himself so he changed his name) go to Hildegarde. Any Harry Potter fans out there (please tell me that there are some-because I, for one, am COMPLETELY obsessed with the series) would be doing us a very good deed by checking it out. And reviewing, too, because we only got ONE REVIEW...and that was sort of a kick in the ego, so... yeah.**

**Okay, now, for who's STILL left (probably even less), about my "muse".**

**Well, I've heard of people talking about Muses. I know the basic idea of a muse, that they give you ideas and stuff, and authors tend to have arguments with them in the Author's Notes, and, well, I knew I had one, I just needed to picture it and give it a name. Well, I pictured it sorta like a pacman ghost, y'know, a little thing with not much shape. But he's grey, and in varying shades of grey, darkest on his sides, and lightest in the middle. He rarely talks (he's the voice in my head when I'm about to do something _incredibly _stupid) and the way I see him, is that he's translucent, and I see "through" him, in a way to give me a full view on the darkest and light points around...and I named him "Shady".**

** That is all. Please, review now. It'd be very, very, _very _nice.**


	5. Back Flips

**WARNING: The following chapter contains severe Justin Bieber-ness. If you are a fan, you can start squee-ing now. If you are not (like myself) you can laugh at Paulina and Starr's antics.**

**Now, read. Because this chapter was incredibly fun to write, and I'm hoping it's incredibly fun to read! **

**So, what I'm obligated to do (although it should be obvious) is tell you that I do not own Justin Bieber (thank GOD) or Danny Phantom (now, that one, I wouldn't mind owning. Ah, well). So, I do not own Justin Bieber or Danny Phantom...or anything to do with Audi (however, my friend, who's a big car nut-and JB nut, now that I think of it, does. She's really proud of it, too). **

**Oh, and, by the way, you're going to be convinced that I'm absolutely evil by the end of the chapter...I can't really help that (well, maybe sorta kinda, but it was fun to write) but I hope you review, anyway. **

"Look! Starr! Nica! Michelle! Lilly! I can do it!"

The four girls turned to look at Paulina, who waited until all their attention was on her, before flipping over backwards, her feet leaving the ground, and not touching it again until she was back upright.

The four of them squealed in delight, rushing to congratulate their friend, in a flurry of comments like, "Ohmigosh you finally did it!", "Like, I still can't do that, and I've been trying for months!", "that's so cool!" and, the most common, "Pshaw, Paulina, we all knew you'd end up doing it."

While they were congratulating the Queen Bee, Starr couldn't help but feel rather disappointed. She'd done a back flip for the first time when she was seven, and by now could flip over twice without touching the ground once. Where was _her_ flurry of recognition?

"Oh my _god_, Paulina, you're like, the _only_ person here that can do it!" Squealed Michelle, her long, bushy hair whirling around, jumping as she did.

Ouch.

Paulina turned to Starr, eyes shining. "I can do it, Starr! I can do a back flip! I beat everybody else!"

Starr forced a grin onto her face. "That's great, Paulina!" she said. Her voice sounded oddly faked. However, Paulina didn't notice-it wasn't like she ever did, anyway.

The door to the gym opened with a bang, and Mr Lancer walked in. The girls all groaned-as much as they didn't like Mrs Tetslaff as their cheer coach, Lancer was _way_ worse.

"Girls," he began, before noticing how small their group was. "_The Outsiders_, people, is this all of you?"

They looked at each other. Cheer practise technically hadn't started yet; it was only 3:55. Nica, Michelle and Lilly always showed up beforehand; Starr and Paulina were just bored.

On the other hand, they all seemed to be thinking the same thing-they didn't want Lancer.

Paulina turned to the Vice Principal/English Teacher-turned-substitute (for _everything_), smiled her sweet, sugary smile, and spoke.

"Yeah, Mr Lancer," she said. "The other girls called. They were, like, all sick or something." She blinked innocently at him.

"_Lord of the Flies_," muttered Lancer, then, looking at the girls again, he sighed. "You can all go home. No point in having a cheer practice without the cheerleaders."

Thrilled, the girls gathered up their things and ran as fast as they could to the changing room-making sure to call the other six girls who hadn't shown up yet.

"-Yeah, Steph, don't come, Lancer's here, we said you were sick-"

"-Ashley, don't come to cheer today, nobody else will be there-"

"-We told Mr Lancer that everybody was sick, oh, and, did you know that Paulina can do a back flip? I know, we like, freaked, she's the first one that can, it's awesome."

"Do you wanna head to my place? We can listen to my Justin CD." Said Paulina. Starr grinned; she couldn't wait.

"Totally! I really want to get away from Davey; he's being such an annoying little...aargh!"

Paulina laughed. "I know, right? Like, last time I was there, he wouldn't shut up! Your brother is _so_ annoying."

Starr paused in the middle of putting on her shoes. Davey wasn't _that_ annoying, was he? He was just...a kid. He wasn't doing anything wrong. That wasn't to say that she really wanted to hear about how a second grader walked into their classroom by mistake-at least not then and there, with Paulina by her side.

"...anyway," Paulina was saying, "Mi Papa says that we can go to the upcoming concert, y'know, the one in December? He already got tickets, so, it'll be no problem."

Starr gasped, jumping up from the bench she was sitting on, eyes wide. "_Really_! I mean, honest to god, Paulina, are. You. _Serious_!"

Paulina just looked at her. "Duh, Starr, what'd you expect? It's Justin _Bieber_!" She explained, "I told my Papa how important this was, and he got them immediately."

Starr squealed, too excited for words. Michelle, Nica and Lilly turned to look at them as if they were crazy.

Paulina finished changing, and got up, Starr following her to the door.

She was going to Justin _Bieber_!

"Oh Baby, Baby, Baby, _oh_...!"

The lights were in her eyes, but it didn't matter. The crowd-oh, what a crowd! Thousands of people had shown up, just to see her, and..._Justin_.

"Baby, Baby, Baby, _ohh_!"

They were cheering her on, chanting their names together. Literally, _together_: "JuStarr! JuStarr! JuStarr!"

"Oh, it's Baby, Baby, Baby, _oh...!"_

They were back to back, each with their own microphone. Their voices sounded better together than peanut butter and jam...did she really just make that simile?

"Baby, Baby, Ba-!" The music stopped abruptly. Starr and Paulina turned around, dropping the hairbrushes in each of their hands. Paulina walked over and turned the disco ball off and the regular light on, and the newcomer was revealed as Paulina's father...or _papa_.

"Papa! What are you doing here?" asked Paulina, looking more than a little annoyed.

Mr Sanchez tapped his large wrist, and then seemed to remember he wasn't wearing a watch. "Starr's mother called-she says you have to go home now. I'll drop you off."

Paulina and Starr groaned.

"Paulina, you can come, too. We need to go pick up to tickets, anyway." He said. Well, at least they had that.

Later, in Paulina's car, the girls were gossiping, as usual.

"I heard that Ron has a girlfriend, her names Harmony-,"

"Harmony? That's a weird name..."

"Yeah, apparently she goes to this big private school..."

"My cousin Meggie goes to a private school, it's out of state,"

"Is she the one that got a silver piercing in her tongue?"

"Yeah, that's the one..."

"Is that, like, even _allowed_ in a private school?"

"No, but people don't notice, because she's all quiet, and stuff."

"Like, quieter than Mikey?"

"More like, quieter than Fenton when he's asleep on his desk, like-"

Starr didn't get to finish her sentence, because at that moment, Mr Sanchez pulled on the wheel hard making the girls scream, and braked, riding up on the sidewalk and almost hitting a mailbox.

The airbags in the front seats deployed, and the girls, sitting in the back, were gripping on to their seats like there was no tomorrow.

Starr looked out the window of the car, to see dozens of motorbikes going the other direction, right where Mr Sanchez's Audi had been.

"Girls," came Mr Sanchez's gruff voice from the front, "are you alright? You're not hurt or anything?"

"W-we're fine, Papa. Who are those-?" Paulina's voice was shaky.

"Probably a gang. We should stay in the car for a bit. Wait for them to pass by, just in case."

Paulina took off her seatbelt and scooted over next to Starr, for a better look at the window. The biker gang was slowing, enough so that they could see that half of them weren't wearing their helmets. They could even pick out the faces of a few.

One of them had blonde, shoulder length, greasy hair. He was very pale, and his grin showed a couple of teeth missing. He seemed to be the leader, if his bike-polished enough that it was practically glowing, with a big number 13 painted on it-was any indication.

Right behind him, seemingly second in command, was-

Starr gasped. "That's _Fenton_!" She exclaimed. "Fenton's in a _gang_!"

Sure enough, it was him, with a grim expression on his face. He was wearing a leather jacket and dark pants instead of his usual baggy clothes, and a glowing green neck choker. Wait, glowing?

She turned to look at Paulina, whose eyes were as wide as her own. This, for sure, explained a lot; Fenton was always late, he tended to have weird bruises, and, well, this might even explain the badger.

Paulina opened her mouth to say something, when Fenton suddenly turned and looked in their direction, succeeding in silencing Paulina, save for a tiny squeak, as she ducked down, out of sight of the window. Starr copied her friend, hoping that Fenton didn't see anything; maybe he'd get mad if he knew that they knew he was in a gang...that may or may not involve badgers.

Mr Sanchez seemed to have heard their movements, because he turned around to the best of his ability (which wasn't much, because he had an airbag he had to move around), and asked, "Girls, are you alright?"

"Shhhh!" Was the reply, from both of them.

Starr moved up ever so slightly, so she could see if the gang was gone. Thankfully, most of them were; she could only see the last of them disappearing at the end of the street. She breathed a sigh of relief.

Starr couldn't remember much of what happened after that. She vaguely remembered climbing out of the car, calling her mom on her phone...her mom arriving in her purple minivan, a silent drive home with Davey-still sulking over the card thing-in the back seat, and then going to her room as soon as she got home.

Now, sitting on her bed, trying to recall the night, the thing she remembered most was Fenton, sitting on his motorbike, in the strange clothing...he didn't look like he always did at school. Instead of the tired boy who cracked a smile and made a joke at pretty much anything, she saw on that motorbike a boy who didn't look like he wanted to be where he was at all. And when he looked around at them...he looked scared. Not about-to-be-beat-up-by-Dash scared, but actually _scared_.

She glanced at her bedside table, hoping for something to distract her. Unfortunately, the first thing she saw was Davey's card-wide open to the picture of Superman, and her parent's writing. Fenton was the reason that card existed-he saved her brother's life. Why would he be in a gang?

Maybe he wasn't, she reasoned. He looked pretty scared, and grim, and not himself-like. But then, that didn't explain the clothes.

Maybe, there was a chance that his gang was a _good_ gang. Not necessary a hygienic one, she figured, thinking back to the greasy-haired blonde, but a good one, nonetheless.

She flopped back on her bed. A good gang. Fenton himself was-loser status disregarded-not really a bad guy. It had to be a good gang...

She rolled over, closing her eyes to go to sleep, when a thought struck her.

Since when did she know Fenton so well?

**Whoever figures out where I got the names mentioned after the Justin Bieber-ness gets a picture drawn for them on DeviantArt! (It has to be FanArt, though, 'cuz me and my family have a huge paranoia over art-stealers)**


	6. Being a Hero

**OMG THIS TOOK TOO LONG**

**Anyway, so, I hope you like this Chapter. And I don't own Danny Phantom, I don't own _The Element Encyclopedia of Secret Signs and Symbols _by Adele Nozedar, (well, I own a copy of the book, but I'm sure you'll all agree that doesn't count) which is where I got all that symbology stuff that Mr Lancer was talking about (seriously. I didn't have much time, so I practically copied it word for word...sorry 'bout that) and...um, I don't own the air...just cuz I don't.**

Starr sat at the kitchen table, eating her cereal. She was incredibly tired; she'd woken up way too early because of the tsunami of texts that had overloading her phone this morning, from people desperately wanting more information than Paulina had managed to give them before her phone had been confiscated. Or at least, that was the general story that she got; Tina Lynn claimed that Danny had come back to _shush her up_...no doubt Tina, who was relatively well known for making up crazy rumours, was simply trying to blow the situation out of control, like the time she'd convinced half the people in the school that Danny Fenton, of all people, was dating Paulina.

Well, that one had actually happened...not that Paulina knew that, for whatever reason. However, it was the rumour that had gotten Tina her reputation.

Starr blinked. Why did it suddenly seem so ironic that Tina's first major rumour involved Danny Fenton? She tried to dig through her half-asleep brain...was it because of Davey? The card? The badger? A gang that involved-

Oh. _Right_.

Her mother walked in, holding Davey, who, like Starr, was still half asleep. Her father tore his gaze from the mini TV-set to the news-to help his wife wake up their son.

Starr finished her cereal, and carried her bowl to the sink, turning the tap on and off quickly to give it a quick rinse. She was about to go back up the stairs to put on her make-up on when a familiar voice attracted her attention. She turned around.

"Hey, Mom, Dad, Uncle Lance finished his vacation early," she called out, as she saw her father's brother back on the news for the first time in two weeks. Her parents turned their attention to the TV.

"He looks better." Her mother commented. She was right. Two weeks ago, before he'd started his vacation, he'd had bags lining his eyes, and the blonde hair that he was ever so proud of was starting to look messy and unkempt. Now, his hair was back to normal, and though you could see shadows of the bags that had haunted his eyes, they were gone for the most part.

The camera now zoomed in to the scene behind Uncle Lance. It was, according to Uncle Lance's voice that still kept going despite the fact that his face was no longer onscreen, supposed to be the movie theatre. However, it looked more like a tornado scene.

There was a street sign lying in several pieces, side by side, as if it had been sliced right through by some incredibly sharp knives. There were random letters scattered around everywhere, letters that Starr assumed used to announce what movies were currently playing. There were even random pieces of wood and fluff that seemed to have been part of the seats in the theatre, not to mention lots of popcorn all over the place.

"Witnesses say that there was a large, biker gang consisting of at least fifty people, the leader of which was blonde with shoulder length hair, pale, almost grey skin, and missing teeth, and second in command was apparently only a Caucasian teenage boy with black hair."

Starr squeaked. Why was it always Fenton? Not somebody like...that kid that sat behind her in chemistry?

"...were unaware of the fact that this gang was, in fact, made up of ghosts. The teenage boy, from what we can figure from what's left of the theatre's security camera, was actually being held captive, and while trying to escape, was sent through a portal to what we can only assume is the ghost zone."

When Lance finished speaking, the video footage he was just talking about was played. Grainy black and white footage pictured a kid desperately trying to get away from the blonde...ghost, apparently. He ducked behind the popcorn stand, and the blonde threw what looked like a ball of light at him. The boy held up a black box, and a circle appeared in mid-air, glowing as bright as the ball of light, and jumped through it. The ball of light hit the popcorn stand and it exploded.

But it never said his name. In fact, Starr mused, with the quality of that security camera, it was easily explained as just any other boy in the world.

Danny Fenton.

That was the name that was tossed around the whole school. Everybody knew why he was always late now; they knew why he always seemed so tired. People knew absolutely everything about him: it was his girlfriend, Sam Manson, who had introduced him to the biker gang. After getting so many bruises-usually because of fights over his height-he'd started wearing baggy clothing to hide those bruises from parents and authority figures. His best friend, Tucker Foley, was also in the gang, but he was the hacker-of course, every gang needs a hacker, didn't you know?-and usually stayed in the gang's hideout. The gang was originally just a human gang, but Danny Fenton had introduced ghosts into it, with the help of his parent's profession.

When Starr got to school, she was astounded at how fast people were at putting pieces together. It made sense, too. It all seemed to click. Danny Fenton was a bad guy, the guy in the gang, the guy you should stay away from.

But there was a puzzle piece missing, a puzzle piece that nobody else knew existed. Or maybe they knew it existed, but they were holding it upside down, because Fenton wasn't the bad guy...right? Danny Fenton had saved Davey from drowning, at his own personal risk. Not only that, but Danny Fenton had saved...or at least _helped_ an injured badger, as creepy as it was.

The buzz only got louder when he didn't show up for school that day. It had taken a while for people to prove it because he rarely walked into class on time anyway, but he was a no-show by lunch, and that was proof enough for the gossipers of Casper High-basically everybody.

For whatever reason, nobody seemed to mention the news footage of that morning, ignoring it for the story that two teenage girls spouted off. The boy in the news fit the description of Danny Fenton; it even told them why he wasn't in school, despite the excuse assumed by the people of Casper High, that he was too afraid to show his ugly face.

Starr really didn't understand the information being sent around the whole school. It made her feel small and dumb, like when Mr Falucca had asked her to explain the information on the board. She knew what had happened, she refused to believe that Fenton was the bad guy...and was therefore humiliated whenever she was involved in a conversation about those stupid rumours.

So at lunch time, she decided to gather her wits in a tree outside. It was the perfect place to just think all alone. She remembered when she and Nica were little, they used to come to Casper High, thinking that they were so _cool_ to just be where the big kids were. This tree used to fit the both of them. Now the tree was no longer cool, but they still were. Starr still liked to use this tree sometimes, though.

The pine needles tickled her face, and she knew she was spending too much time thinking. She wasn't very good at it, and maybe she was thinking about the wrong things. But no matter what she told herself, her mind was always brought back to the mystery that was Danny Fenton- the mystery that asked her why she should even care.

She thought back to what Paulina had said earlier. He was a freak, she'd said, a weirdo. His parents were weird, his sister was insane, and why should he be any different? And, they had all agreed, all of the A-listers, that being in a gang definitely proved that he was weird.

Starr closed her eyes and laid her head back against the trunk of the tree. The rough bark would chip off into her hair, and although half of her was horrified at the mere thought of it, she had too much inner turmoil to care right now.

What if it was cool to be in a gang? What if it was weird to wear what she and Paulina wore? What if it was cool to be an incredibly short guy who saved lives? She and Paulina would suddenly be in the trendiest gang, wouldn't they? But she knew that, if that was cool, they'd never be cool again. They were far too terrified for their own lives to care about somebody else's.

She reached into her purse, hoping to find her sparkly lip gloss. Her hand brushed paper, and she pulled it out, curious. She bit her lip guiltily; it was the card, that _stupid_ card. Davey must have put it in her purse when she wasn't looking. He really wanted her to give it to Fenton.

Fenton didn't care about cool. He'd said so himself. He just plain didn't. And he was Davey's hero. Starr cared about popularity; she strived for it, and would give anything and everything to get more of it. She was Paulina's best friend, she was on the cheerleading team, and she had an awesome figure, long blonde hair and baby blue eyes, and had, up until last week, been dating one of the football jocks, Dale. But she wasn't anybody's hero.

Her eyes turned to the sky, half hidden by the branches above her. There was Danny Phantom, flying so fast she almost missed him. He was on his way to do something. To save somebody's life, no doubt. She wondered if he ever cared about popularity, if he was ever scared that people wouldn't like him anymore. Sort of like that old Inviso-Bill character. The two of them looked so much alike that they could almost be the same person...

Wait a sec...

She groaned and pounded her head against the tree trunk, hating herself for her own stupidity. Why was she even popular if she was so dumb? Of course they were the same person...err, ghost!

But back to her train of thought, he probably didn't care, did he? He saved lives anyway, no matter what people thought of him. He was noble, he was everybody's hero. Everybody in this town had been saved by him once or twice, and he was Paulina's knight in shining armour. Mr Lancer had brought him up a couple of weeks ago in English class, complete with a poster of the Ghost Boy on the whiteboard, saying that maybe he had chosen his own appearance. She and her classmates had wondered how that was even relevant, and Mr Lancer had continued.

_"Let's start with the gloves on his hands, Hm?" began their English teacher, quieting the class, and a small smile appeared on his lips, and Starr could only assume that it was because the class had never been this quiet. "White gloves," he continued, "are symbolic. Freemasons wear them as a symbol of work to be done, but also to show purity of thought. They were also worn for the same reasons in the Catholic Church, given to bishops and kinds after their investiture, and here they are a reminder of newborn purity. Now, Danny Phantom has said anything about his religious views, but the symbolic thought remains, perhaps that he means to purify the town of ghosts._

_"Now let's move on to his belt." Said Mr Lancer, and the more immature group of the class suppressed snorts and giggles. "It symbolizes a binding aspect; the girdle is synonym for the soul that is bound to the body. He may be trying to tell us that, no, he hasn't passed on yet, and he has a reason for it. It also acts as a symbolic "wall" through which evil entities cannot penetrate... sort of a spiritual utility belt._

_"Shoes-his boots- are simple. They are a status symbol, and are usually the sign of a free man. Danny Phantom has evaded capture from any and all forms of ghost hunters, from the Guys in White, who are government agents, to the Red Huntress, an anonymous hunter. There are many other ways to symbolize shoes, for instance, in Cinderella, the slipper that she lost and found by the Prince, which was then used to prove her identity, in which form is a sexual symbol, but that is irrelevant._

_"Next, his eyes. While most ghosts have eyes as they are an image of their human selves, Danny Phantom's eyes are green. Again, this is not uncommon among ghosts; let's imagine that he chose the colour green. Green has many meanings behind it: new life and resurrection, something that maybe he felt grateful for that, after he died, he was granted a pass back into the real world. Green also means recycling and environmental awareness-hopefully the majority of you know that already-but it also has a lot to do with luck. It symbolizes both being lucky and unlucky, an oxymoron, if you will. Perhaps Phantom believes he is lucky to live in the human realm, but he may also believe it to be a curse to walk among us as an outsider, outcast, something that is generally thought of as untrustworthy. Green is also the universal symbol for "Go!" as if to tell us that he will be ready to jump into action at a moment's notice. However, jealousy is referred to as the 'Green-Eyed Monster' and expression that is Shakespearean in origin-look it up in the play "Othello" if you're curious. He may be envious of our normal, human bodies and lives._

_Lastly, let's look at his hair, and his boots belt and gloves once again, if only for their colour. White means purity, as we have already discussed, virginity-however, I doubt that's relevant and it may be far too personal to ask if you get the chance-and a beginning and an end. White is both the absence of colour, and the sum of all the colours as one, so it means everything and nothing, beginning and end. Danny Phantom is dead, yet alive in the sense that he is still a sentient being, and an intelligent one, too. White is the colour of expectation, the colour of an empty canvas, a blank sheet of paper. He has built himself a reputation among us as a hero, and white cannot be a more fitting colour for him."_

While his fancy words had confused the blonde cheerleader, his main meanings had sunk in. Danny Phantom was a hero, and maybe he had some inner conflicts. But, like Lancer had said, his eyes were green, and he jumped at the chance to save or help somebody. He was free, and helped others stay that way.

Starr curled up into a ball-or, the closest she could get while balanced on the branches of a tree. Danny Phantom was already dead, she told herself. He saved others with super powers he gained from being so. He didn't have school to go to; he was already an 'outcast'. She didn't have the chance to become all noble-like the way he could.

But...Danny Fenton wasn't an outcast. Well, socially he was, even more so now. But he still had school to struggle with, and friends to deal with. He didn't have all day either.

...it didn't take all day, though, to just jump in a lake, right? Nor did it take all day to save a badger (that was still creepy!).

The bell rang, and Starr climbed out of the tree, running to the school. Hopefully, she could get to the bathroom quickly and make sure she didn't have pine needles and tree bark stuck in her hair. She shouldn't have to think about what made who a hero; she didn't have to care. The only thing that she should be caring about was getting that card to Fenton, and then staying out of his business.

Wrong.

Turns out, Danny Fenton had showed up to school during lunchtime. Now, he was the center of attention. Everybody regarded him as if he was about to pounce on them.

"Did you see that look that he gave me?" hissed Paulina as he walked down the hallway in between classes, "He wants to kill me! You too, Starr! He must know that we saw him last night!"

Starr looked back at the raven haired boy. "But...he just looks tired."

And so he did. His hair was messed up, and he had dark circles under his expressionless eyes. He was slouched over with his hands in his pockets, and his two friends-Sam Manson and Tucker Foley were at his sides protectively.

"That's what he wants you to think." Said Paulina darkly, glaring at his retreating figure. "By the way, Starr, where did you get that bracelet? It looks awful."

Starr looked down at her wrist, to see the orange bracelet that she'd bought with Paulina under a week ago. "Paulina, I bought it with you, remember? You picked it out."

The Queen Bee made a face. "I don't remember it. Besides, it looks ugly. It would have looked better in blue." She checked the clock and gasped dramatically, "Oh, see you, Starr; I have to go do my make up quickly before Math."

And so Paulina Sanchez rushed off, leaving a confused and hurt Starr behind.

**I think that some of the italics are messed up, so let me know if they are. Anyway, I'm very pleased to say that, even though I haven't done much this story has recieved lots a traffic. **

***Edit* I was told that a couple of sentences were unnecessarily italicized. Thank you! **

**Oh, and you know that picture that I offered as a prize last chapter? It's been finished, and posted on DeviantArt if you're curious.. And because my computer is really weird (gahh!) I can't copy/paste (at all) so search up "Scott Pilgrim Danny Phantom", and mine is the one titled 'Uh...hi?'**

**Now review, cuz it's lovely :D**


	7. Snowball Fight

**Ok, so it's not my best work. But I had to get it up...**

Starr rummaged through her locker, looking for her copy of '_To Kill a Mockingbird' _for English class. She She as sure she'd put it in here.

"Um," said a shaky, nasal voice from behind her, "Starr, right?" she blinked, and turned around, abandoning her search. Standing behind her was a tall, thin boy with freckles, red hair, and thick bulky glasses. She recognized the boy as Mikey, one of the kids Dash and his friends picked on.

"What." She responded rudely.

"Um, well, I wanted to, um, know, if you, uh, needed a date for the upcoming dance." He said, revealing two large, front teeth behind bright orange braces,

She arched an eyebrow at the boy, wrinkling her nose. "Um, like, first of all? _Ew_. I'd rather go with my cousin. And, no, I don't need a date; I can find one easy because I'm in the A-list, unlike _some_." She spat, glaring at him.

"Oh..." he mumbled, looking down at his shoes, "right. Yeah, uh, that's ok, I mean, it was just, I don't know, me...being...silly and... yeah..."

Starr was about to snap at him to go away, when the way he spoke reminded her of how Fenton had looked when he had that creepy badger in his arms, asking her if she wanted to go and help the stupid thing. Fenton was a loser, but he'd saved her brother's life, without asking for any sort of thanks. What if Mikey had been at the lake instead of Fenton?

"Sorry..." she said quietly. Mikey looked up at her, eyes wide with hope.

"What?" he said. Starr mentally shook herself. What was she thinking? Fenton was already a weirdo! Mikey was just a geeky nerd. Besides, what had happened had happened. She was ready to accept that one geek was a hero, two was just too much.

"Nothing. Go away, loser." She snapped, angrily.

He quickly obeyed, and Paulina rushed forward to take his place.

"_Oh_. My God! Starr, what on Earth were you doing? He's a _loser_! He knows his locker better than his bedroom!" she gushed, horrified.

"What, you think I was actually talking to him? He asked me out; I turned him down, _duh_." Starr rolled her eyes as she turned back to her locker, finally finding her book.

"People saw you! Starr, mi Amiga, you're my friend, but you have to be careful, okay?" Paulina said, as if telling a young child not to put their hand on the hot stove.

"Paulina, I will. It's not like I can stop him from walking up to me, I don't have eyes in the back of my head! That would look _weird_!"

"Ew, you're right." Said Paulina, pondering the image. "But it doesn't matter, Starr, promise me you'll just tell him to go away as soon as he comes next time?"

Starr nodded, taking her words to heart. She shouldn't have asked him what he wanted, it just gave him hope. His hope made him stay, and _him_ staying made _her_ look bad!

"And Starr?"

"Mm-hmm?" she asked, flipping through her book to find her bookmark.

"Don't be so mean to me next time. Starr, you're lucky I'm so tolerant-other people might not like you saying '_duh'_ to them as if they're stupid." Paulina warned, and walked away, heels clicking against the tiles of the hallway. Starr bowed her head; Paulina was right. How could she be so rude?

**OMG IT'S A LINE BREAK IT'S NEVER SHOWED UP BEFORE BECAUSE MY COMPUTER IS EVIL!**

A piece of paper landed on her desk. It was her test! Starr grinned-she had the feeling she'd done well on this one. She flipped the page over as Mr Albertson walked off, handing the rest of the class their tests.

Oh.

She crossed her arms over her desk and rested her head in them, feeling glum. She had been so sure that she'd passed that test! It had felt so easy when she was writing it...

A bright pink sticky note in the shape of a flower landed on her desk, extremely curly writing covering it. Starr stared at it for a second, chewing on the inside of her cheek, her nervous habit. She knew it was from Paulina-if the curly writing wasn't a giveaway, then the pink flower was-and she had the feeling that she was asking what she'd gotten on her test. Well, it wasn't like she wanted to tell her... but she'd been so rude to her friend already, and if she was any ruder, she'd get kicked off the A-list.

She sighed and picked up the sticky note. '_Hey Starr __i got a b wut about u_?' it read.

Starr picked up her pencil, about to write a reply, when the note was snatched away from her before the pencil even touched it. She gasped as she saw Mr Albertson walk up to the front of the room with it.

She groaned and buried her head into her arms. She didn't want to witness what was bound to happen next.

**MORE LINE BREAK OVER HERE!**

Starr walked home alone, something she rarely did unless she was upset. And boy was she upset. Along with her public embarrassment of being seen with Mikey and getting a bad grade on her test-not to mention having Mr Albertson read out the note Paulina had given her _and_ what she'd gotten-a food fight had broken out during lunch, staining her brand new $100 jeans, and to top it all off, it had snowed heavily during the last few blocks of school; her feet were frozen numb through her heels.

So lost in her misery and misfortune, Starr didn't notice the snowball heading her direction until it collided with her head.

She stopped. "Sorry!" called somebody, no doubt the person who had thrown the snowball in the first place.

A snowball had just hit her head. A _snowball_ had just _hit her head_! Her hair was going to get wet now, and so would her face, and not only would her hair become frizzy, but her makeup would be _ruined_! She hadn't counted on getting hit with a _snowball_! She hadn't worn waterproof makeup today!

She slowly turned, expression furious and deadly. Her eyes widened when she realized who it was, then quickly narrowed again. She took a deep breath.

"YOU HAD BETTER BE SORRY, YOU LITTLE GOOD FOR NOTHING LITTLE CREEPS SHOULD KNOW BETTER THAN TO THROW A SNOWBALL AT ME OF ALL PEOPLE! ME! I COULD RUIN WHAT PATHETIC LITTLE LIVES YOU ALREADY HAVE!" She yelled, not even noticing the stares she was attracting from other people in the park. If she'd bothered to pay attention, she would have been thanking her lucky stars that nobody _else_ from school from here.

She kept bellowing insults at them as she bent down and gathered up some snow in her mittens, packing it hard.

"I'VE HAD A BAD ENOUGH DAY ALREADY AND I SHOULD TEACH YOU A LESSON YOU LITTLE LOSERS AND IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT, FENTON, BECAUSE YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT IT'S LIKE TO KEEP UP A REPUTATION!" she continued, throwing the snowball at Fenton and his friend as hard as she could , internally relishing the expressions of shock taking over their faces.

"AND NOW I HOPE YOU GET TO SEE WHAT IT FEELS LIKE TO BE MADE FUN OF BY YOUR FRIENDS JUST BECAUSE SOMEBODY ELSE THREW A HOT DOG AT YOUR BUTT!" She screeched as the snowball flew through the air, "DO YOU SEE WHAT I MEAN, FENTON!" she finally finished, as the ball of snow hit Foley in the face so hard that it knocked him to the snowy ground, out of sight behind their snow fort. Starr noticed a tiny bit of red, and panicked for about a millisecond before realizing that it was his annoying hat.

It was silent for a moment as Fenton stared at his fallen friend.

"WELL!" she shrieked at him, fed up with his silence. He looked between her and his friend for a few seconds.

Suddenly, he wore an evil grin.

Starr's angry expression fell, finally realizing that even though she was certain Fenton was the good guy (no matter how mad she was at him at the moment), he was also tough enough to endure freezing cold water and a fight with a ghost gang on motorcycles. And if he was tough enough to do that, he was more than likely able to beat her in a snowball fight.

"Uh oh…" she said softly.

Within a few minutes, snowballs were being exchanged faster than the blink of an eye. She dodged, he threw, she threw, he dodged, he threw, she was hit, she retaliated, he dodged, he threw, she dodged, she threw, he was hit, and caught off guard, she was able to hit him a few more times.

The fight continued on like this, repeating in different forms of hit and miss, both of them determined to win the fight, neither of them remembering that this had started with a temper tantrum from the popular cheerleader, neither of them caring about their own personal level of popularity. Sometime during the fight, Fenton had come out from behind the fort that he had made with his friend, making it fair for Starr, who hadn't had the time to make one.

Too absorbed in their now-playful fight, neither of them noticed when Sam Manson and Jazz Fenton showed up. If they had, they would probably laughed at their identical expressions of shock that had been held until Foley had gestured for them to hide behind the snow fort with him.

It took about half an hour for Starr to finally hold up her hands in defeat. "You win!" she called, laughing, "I lost! Fenton, you win!" she said, doubling over from laughter. "You win…"

**LINE BREAK**

Starr couldn't remember the last time she had had so much fun. She was still smiling now, sitting at the Nasty Burger with Kwan, Paulina and Michelle. She could probably never tell them what had happened, unless she wanted to be kicked off the A-list. She also couldn't do it again; not only had Fenton's friends and sister been somewhat hostile to her, but she was incredibly lucky that nobody had seen her. She just couldn't risk it.

She couldn't explain exactly what had happened; she had been so mad at Fenton, she'd been about ready to strangle him, and when she'd thrown the snowball, all that had disappeared. Well, not at first, she'd had to admit. It had been incredibly satisfying at the time to see Foley fall to the ground like that. She had felt like she'd gotten a well-deserved revenge. Now…it was just funny. She didn't think about revenge at all. Just the comedy of the situation.

Not only that, but she couldn't remember the last time she'd gotten into a snowball fight. The girls she hung out with never really wanted to. She didn't know why, but the subject had never come up. Although Starr distinctly remembered the expression of disapproval on Paulina's face whenever she saw the boys having their own snowball fight. Like, so _immature_…

Her smile grew as she remembered Fenton's expression when he noticed the other two girls on the scene. It had been purely comical-he was scared that he'd been ignoring them.

Her smile fell a little bit, though, when she remembered _their_ reaction to _her_. It had made her feel so small, sort of like when she'd done something wrong with Paulina. She'd only been having some fun...

"Uh, Starr?" a voice interrupted her thoughts, and she jumped, nearly spilling her low calorie milkshake, alarmed. Her wide eyes found Kwan who had spoken, and was now laughing at her reaction with Paulina and Michelle. She blushed.

"Um, yeah?" she asked meekly.

"Well, you were zoning out. I wanted to know what was wrong. I mean, you usually love hearing about my football games!" said Kwan, grinning enthusiastically.

She blinked at him. He was right; she did tend to like listening to his retelling of the football games-but usually when she wasn't able to show up. It was one of the reasons she had become a cheerleader, because she loved football so much. But she had seen the football game he was talking about, so she hadn't been interested. She opened her mouth to tell him so, when his excited expression caught her eye.

"Oh, um, right. Sorry, Kwan, I… I've just had a bad day, I'm sorry…" she said, not meeting his eye.

Paulina scoffed beside her, grabbing her attention. "Starr, you think _you_ had a bad day? Like, oh my _god_, you can be so insensitive. Mrs Brown like, made me go and change my shirt because it was too '_revealing'_! I mean, it was only the _cutest_ shirt ever…" she said, beginning a rant.

And something clicked in Starr's mind. If she had said that any other day, Starr would be fawning over her, cooing that it would get better, much like Michelle and Kwan were doing. But while Paulina was complaining about a $50 dollar shirt, nobody had cared about her jeans that had cost double that. Nobody.

She suddenly wanted to be mad at Paulina, and yell at her, and tell her how unfair it was that she grabbed all the attention. She stood up, silencing everybody.

Her friends looked at her. She just stood there, wondering what to do. So she did the only thing she could think of.

"I'm going home…" she mumbled. And she did.

**I don't own Danny Phantom...or Jeff Albertson. Google him :D**


	8. The Wicked Witch of the Best

**FILLER CHAPTER IS FILLER-Y. **

**Also, I think I might be adding a few too many plot devices in here...gah. I'm trying my best. Although my best isn't very good at the current moment...**

The whistle shrieked, and all movement stopped in the gymnasium, as players caught the volleyballs that had been flying through the air and looked at Mrs Tetslaff, who was now wiping the whistle off on her red shorts.

"Everybody in!" she barked, and all volleyballs were dropped as the students let them go where they stood and walked over to surround their teacher.

"Alright, so in about a week, we're starting a new unit, alright? We're starting dance, or, more specifically, hip hop." Growled Mrs Tetslaff, "it won't take place in the school-it never has-it takes place on Hartman Street, which is about four blocks from here. You can all walk, it's not like we'll harp on you for being late because we're giving you about ten extra minutes to get there, not that you need that." She said sternly.

Her students took the opportunity to whisper in a flurry, excited, horrified, or just annoyed at the extra walk.

"Oi!" barked Mrs Tetslaff again, "I didn't say talk. You all know where Hartman Street is, right?" she asked, and the majority of her class nodded. "For those who don't, meet me here and we'll walk together. Got it?" she said. "Good. Class dismissed."

Returning to the changing rooms, Paulina, Starr and Lilly chatted about the classes coming up in a week.

"Like, ugh, I can't believe this!" fumed Paulina, "We have to, like, walk! I don't want to walk!" she said, and glared at her two friends, as if it were their fault.

Starr was about to protest that it was no big deal-being cheerleaders, they were fit enough-but she remembered how her reputation was doing nowadays. It seemed that Lilly or Michelle was going to take her new place as Paulina's best friend. She didn't want to lose her friend!

"Oh, my _god_, you're right," she finally said, rolling her eyes to the ceiling, "and, like, in the snow, too." She continued, noting how her shrill voice sounded so popular. She liked that.

Lilly groaned beside her. "And hip hop too. No Justin Bieber! That is, like not cool." She added in.

Paulina shrieked at this. None of her beloved? They'd have to listen to other stuff, like…like rap? The ranting and mourning of the beautiful teenager continued throughout the day.

"I mean, rap is like, okay, right? But if there's, like, _only_ rap, then I really don't want to listen to it! Why do I have to listen to it if I don't even like it that much? I mean, it's okay…but not _that_ okay, and…"

Starr found herself zoning out after school, as they sat at their usual table in the middle of the Nasty Burger. She sat in the same spot she normally did, as did Paulina, who was sitting right next to her, and Dash, who was right across from Paulina. Kwan wasn't here today-something about an extracurricular assignment-so Remy, a slightly tan girl with light brown hair who was slowly becoming more and more popular in the A-list, sat across from Starr. She seemed so nervous, so excited to be right there, at the same table at Paulina, that she was almost vibrating in her seat. Starr tried to remember how excited she had been when she'd first sat with Paulina. It had been so long ago-about a month after freshman year had started, when Paulina had come to the school as a new student and promptly wrapped their whole grade around her finger. She had been so thrilled to be a part of it, and so had Nica. The two of them had climbed the social ladder so fast, it was as if they'd been shot out of a cannon. Somewhere along the line, Paulina had decided to favour Starr over Nica, but neither of them minded. They were drifting apart, anyway…

She took another sip from her Diet Pepsi. It was really watery…she occasionally wondered why Paulina kept on coming here, when she always insisted on perfection for herself, anyway. On the other hand, ghosts always tended to show up here, too, and ghosts always attracted Danny Phantom, so…yeah, that answer was obvious. Good thing she hadn't actually voiced her thoughts aloud-just imagine how stupid _that_ would look.

"So, like, Paulina, don't you think that cheer practice can get, like, _so_ annoying?"

Starr froze, mentally cringing. She liked Remy; too bad that she opened her big mouth.

Paulina directed her cold gaze towards the new girl, who seemed to sense that she'd done something wrong, and was quickly back-tracking her words. "I-I mean, especially when L-lancer tries to teach, right? I mean, it's not usually…?" she trailed off, finally smartening up enough to shut her mouth. Starr sighed quietly. She'd gone too far to go back now…

Paulina had one of her perfect eyebrows raised, her mouth set in a thin line. Paulina worshipped cheer practice, and she knew for a fact that while yes, it did get annoying when Lancer taught it, it was _her_ _sport_. Paulina was the captain, the ruler, the _queen_, and the whole cheer team were her faithful subjects, doing whatever she said, no matter what she said.

Nobody dissed the cheer team.

Starr pitied poor Remy in that moment, as a deadly silence settled across the table. Being the loudest table in the fast food restaurant in the first place, the rest of the Nasty Burger consequently lowered in volume as well.

"Remy?" asked Paulina, her voice sickly sweet before she turned it deadly quiet, "if you don't like the cheer team, you're free to leave, chica. If you don't want to be on it, nobody's keeping you there. Are you going to stay or leave?" she said, glaring flaming daggers into the poor brunette, who looked to be on the verge of tears.

"I…I didn't mean it…I mean, yeah, I'll…stay…" said Remy, staring down at the half eaten mini mighty meaty burger on her plate.

"Good." Said Paulina with an arrogant sniff, "Cheer tryouts are boring."

Starr silently chewed on her burger.

**

* * *

**"Starr, stop complaining. We're going to have Family Movie Night and that's that." Mrs. Thunder had her hands on her hips, the DVD in her hand, the television playing the standard blue screen, having been set to the DVD mode.

"But I could be out doing something with Paulina!" Starr complained, raising her head to stare at the ceiling as she stomped her foot.

"And what would you do that I would deem more important than quality time with your family?"

"I…well; we don't have anything planned tonight, but…"

"Sit down, Starr." Her mother pointed to empty spot on the couch next to Davey.

Starr glanced at the spot she was indicating, before turning back to her mom, desperate now. "But, mom…" she said, trying to sound reasonable.

"I'm not hearing it. Sit down. Now." Her mother's expression was stubborn, and Starr knew she wouldn't win.

The movie began, and Judy Garland's face appeared onscreen as she went through the lines as Dorothy from _The Wizard Of Oz_. Every now and then, her father would give them a little tidbit of information about the movie-like how they were supposed to watch Dorothy's hair for frequent changes in length, and how the tin man fell ill from his face paint. The creepiest one, thought Starr, was when he mentioned how Judy Garland was drugged throughout the whole movie to keep her in line. This was followed by a quick lecture on not to do drugs.

Starr found herself zoning out throughout the whole movie. It was old, she thought, with crappy special effects, annoying songs, and a dumb concept. She ended up staring at the ceiling. It was a plain, white ceiling that most houses had. It was dark, since all the lights were off. The section nearer the TV was slightly lit up by the light from the television screen, flickering from blue to green to darker colours, depending on which area of the movie was playing. There was a fly buzzing around near the ceiling, too. It landed upside down after a while. Starr wondered why Spiderman wasn't Fly-Man, instead. Flies could, well, fly. Spiders couldn't. But then, she mused, flies couldn't shoot webs out of their hands. Of course, neither of them could go through walls…and she was sure that a ghost hero was a lot better than both of them. She had seen Phantom use web like material on the news…

Starr smiled. If only she was a ghost hero. She would _definitely_ be more popular than Paulina that way. Everybody would love her…maybe guys would have shrines of her in their lockers. What would her name be? Not Starr Phantom, that wasn't very original. It also made her sound like she was either married or related to Danny Phantom. What could she make out of the name Starr?

Asteroid? That sounded way too destructive. Comet? She wrinkled her nose. It sounded like a reindeer. Space...that sounded okay. Space Thunder…no. That didn't work at all. Not to mention it was way too close to her real name. Space…lightning? No. Space Storm? Space...maybe it should just stay Space, she mused. That sounded really cool, actually, she thought. If only she really was a superhero…she could just imagine herself flying just like Danny Phantom, her feet free from the weight of her body, flipping and turning and playing tag with the birds…

Sort of like the witch from the movie, except without the broom. The broom would be rather uncomfortable, mused Starr, as she saw the witch fly around to spell out her death threat to Dorothy. Wouldn't it hurt?

Of course it would…and it did, too…

_Starr is running down the stairs, away from Paulina, who is wearing her most beautifully evil outfit, glaring down at her every step of the way. Running with her is Kwan, wearing a farmer's outfit, Danny Phantom, shining with a silver glow, and Danny Fenton, looking scared out of his mind._

_Suddenly, Paulina is in front of them, and the rest of the cheerleaders are all around them, surrounding them with evil grins on each and every one of their faces. Starr gasps into the beauty queen's face._

"_Well! Ring around the rosy a pocket full of - spears. Thought you'd be pretty foxy, didn't you? Well, the last to go will see the first three go before her", sneers Paulina, cackling, "And her mangy little badger, too!" she exclaims in triumph, gesturing to one of the cheerleaders around her holding a badger in a cage. _

"_How about a little fire to the scarecrow?" she suggests, grabbing hold of the torch and jabbing it at Fenton, who is backed up into a corner, blue eyes wide and whimpering. Paulina cackles as the sleeve of Fenton's long sweatshirt catches aflame._

"_Oh…oh…it's b-burning…oh…" whispers Fenton in disbelief. Starr, shocked by Paulina's actions, grabs hold of a nearby bucket of water and douses Fenton with it, and the water, more than Starr needs, splashes outwards and soaks Paulina as well._

_Paulina shrieks. "Ahhhh! You accurse brat!" she hisses, "Look what you've done!" she points a perfectly manicured nail to her face, where her makeup is slowly sliding off, visibly sizzling. Slowly Paulina's face begins to bubble, and it becomes clear that not only is her makeup melting, but…Paulina is too._

_Shrieking and wailing, Paulina covers her face, "I'm melting! I'm melting!" she bawls as she becomes smaller and smaller, "Ohh, what a world! No! No!" _

_Starr, Kwan, Phantom and Fenton can only stare in amazement. Finally, just before the last of her melts into a puddle of gloop, Paulina uncovers her face to glare venomously into Starr's very soul. "Who would have thought that some little girl like you," she sneers, "could destroy my beautiful wickedness."_

_And so she melts, and Starr is left staring at the puddle of Paulina, terrified and wanting out. _

**I hope my dream thingy wasn't too crappy. And I've got Starr musing about her nonexistant alter-ego, which is sorta silly, but what do _you _do while watching a boring movie? I, for one, totally don't imagine myself in Harry Potter, no, of course not...instead, I write a story about it XD **

**This story, at the current moment, is really dragging on, and I get that. And I also hate that. Next chappy stuff will actually happen. **

**Now time for my oh-so-brilliantly original disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom, Hartman Street, or the Wizard of Oz. (See what I did there? ...you're right. I did nothing. Just like Danny Phantom and Kwan in the dream thingy...they do symbolize somethin'. You might be able to tell I like symbolism lots, eh?)**

**Hope you enjoyed.**

**Also, please, if you don't mind, check out the other vundahful pieces of work I've got online. This includes a series of oneshots written on a PHONE. It's pretty epic. **


	9. Fake Swoons and Tasteless Salad

***drops off chapter and runs faster than Danny can fly***

Starr picked at her salad. Every once in a while, she would take a small bite, but it wasn't often and she preferred to simply pick at it; it required less concentration.

Not that she wasn't so stupid that she couldn't even eat and hold up a regular conversation anyway (despite what the other kids thought; she was starting to simply not care, though. The feeling was strange, yet somehow empowering), she was simply focussed on _other_ things at the moment. Like, for instance, Paulina. She was slowly becoming amazed at the things she'd never noticed before.

Like the fact that Paulina had a very unattractive sneer when she looked at almost anybody other than the other A-Listers. Which was almost everybody.

And the fact that Paulina was no good at pretending to swoon when Dash put his jacket around her shoulders because she pouted pathetically and told him she was cold.

And the fact that nobody either noticed or cared because Paulina was pretty and Dash probably thought that he was going to get laid.

...he probably was.

Starr speared another piece of lettuce with her flimsy plastic fork and brought it towards her mouth, grimacing at the taste. She'd never liked salad, or really any kind of vegetable. She wondered why she let Paulina order it for her as she let her eyes wander across the rest of the cafeteria, not in the mood to watch Paulina eat her own salad in what she probably thought was a suggestive manner anymore.

She saw Valerie Grey in the corner of the cafeteria, typing furiously on her...phone. Starr furrowed her brows, curious; who had a phone that bulky anymore? It looked sleek, true, but it just looked so..._clunky_. Just so completely out of style. She imagined Paulina catching sight of the phone, knowing almost exactly the words she'd say while Starr nodded along in the background, watching Valerie slowly feel like her phone wasn't good enough, then she'd get a prettier phone and Valerie would be better and slowly work her way back into the A-List and then they could talk again because Paulina wouldn't get mad and...

Why would Paulina get mad anyway? Valerie was still as pretty as she used to be. And she didn't have a bad reputation (although, she didn't really have a reputation at all anymore...she sort of just dropped of everybody's radar).

She'd probably get mad if she talked to Fenton, though. He wasn't very hot. And he had a bad rep. Starr bit her lip; she sort of wanted to talk to Fenton...

Speaking of Fenton, he was getting up from his table in the far corner everybody dubbed as the 'loser corner', quickly dumping his tray in the garbage and leaving, his two friends (gangster friends?) hot on his heels.

"I'll be right back," she mumbled, getting up from the table and dusting off her jeans. She hoped she wasn't being too obvious in following the three losers of the school. She chanced a glance over her shoulder-nope, Paulina was reapplying lip gloss.

Starr wondered why she felt so disappointed.

* * *

The halls were empty. Other than her own, no footsteps echoed around the hallway, there was no mumbling, there wasn't even the sound of that Tucker geek texting. Starr groaned-of course, she hadn't thought this through, because she was stupid, because she really _was_ Paulina's satellite and good god how on Earth was she supposed to live life without Paulina if she couldn't even think through a walk to the hallway she was hopeless and

"Danny, why did we have to come with you? That was your fastest trip...ever."

Starr froze and turned around. Somehow, the three people she was looking for had magically appeared right behind her. And they evidently hadn't noticed her, she realised, as the goth girl-Sam, right?-rooted through her locker for something. Starr wondered with annoyance how she was so _popular_, yet nobody noticed her.

"Well how was I supposed to know that? It could have been as long as last time." said Fenton, and Starr wondered what they were talking about, "that took twelve hours and I ended up...actually, I'm still not sure where I was."

"Bro, that was because we weren't there with yo-" the geek trailed off. "Okay, you have a point."

Starr, figuring she was probably intruding on something, cleared her throat (and then immediately made a mental note to not do that again. It sounded weird). Three heads snapped in her direction.

And that was when she realised she had nothing to say.

She giggled nervously as the three of them watched her warily. "Uh, hi." she said, sliding her hands into her pockets awkwardly. There was a paper in there that she didn't remember putting there. She fiddled with it as she thought of what to say.

The Sam chick glared at her, and Starr found herself flinching at the sight. "What do you want, preppy? Come to stare at the freaks, because believe me, we get enough of that." Starr's eyes widened and she shook her head frantically, but the gothic girl wasn't finished yet. "and I am getting sick of this staring and whispering, so if you keep on doing that, we'll show you just how freaky we can get."

The smirk that the goth sent her was enough to get Starr to fling her hands up in the air in surrender. "I'm sorry," she said quietly, eyes lowered, watching the paper that had been in her pocket flutter to the ground. The goth girl reminded her of a hissing snake, about to attack.

"Sorry for what? For letting your stupid friend be a huge-"

"Sam!" the two boys around her exclaimed, looking scandalised. She stopped her impending rant in a huff.

There was an awkward silence in between the four of them. Starr bent down and picked up the paper, slowly turning it through her fingers as she realised what it was-the card that Davey had made. It had been at least a month since he'd made it; she was surprised by his persistence in sneaking it into her things.

Starr held up the (now extremely wrinkled) card proudly, a proud smile on her face. "This! This is what I want!" she exclaimed, and the three rumoured-to-be-miscreants exchanged confused looks. "I mean," she corrected quickly, "I don't want it, I already have...I mean, I've been trying to get rid of it for, like, a month, and-well, I-I mean!" she said hastily as their expressions turned to skepticism, "It's not because it's bad! I mean, it's kind of wrinkled, and and and, that's probably-well it _definitely_ is my fault and I, well it's just" she let out a slightly hysterical giggle, her mind whirring at 100 miles per hour, wondering why she wanted to impress them so bad, why she craved their approval as much as she used to crave Paulina's (she wasn't going to end up being _their_ satellite now, was she?) and why giving them-well really just Fen-Danny. His name was Danny. Why was giving Danny a card so exhilarating? "My brother." she said, taking a breath, "made this. Because I told him you saved him, like, a month ago. And I, well I should have given it to you a long time ago but I guess I just...I kept forgetting, you know? And I'm...I'm sorry. Because I owed this to you a while ago. And you saved my little brother, and everybody is scared of you, and they don't-don't have a real _reason_ to and..." she trailed off.

She silently walked up to him, and placed the card in his hand (god, his hands were cold). She offered him a smile. He just looked back at her in shock for a moment, before opening the card, smiling softly at the Superman cut out inside. His two friends crowded around behind him, examining the card with him.

Finally, the geek broke the silence by quipping "it looks almost exactly like you, Danny. That kid's got a good hand." and he looked up at her and _winked_. Starr grinned, surprised.

"Yeah," admitted the Sam girl, somewhat grudgingly, "it's not bad."

Somehow, this felt so much better than topping the chearleading pyramid.

**Okay, okay, okay, you really hate me, I get it, and I am so. _So_. Sorry. **

**I meant to post this months ago (it was actually something completely different before, but I kind of forgot. I've had to reread my own story to catch myself up to speed-and then I subconsciously skip sections because, hey, I wrote it, and rereading it so many times gets a little old. So there may be a few continuity errors.) but then, well, life got in the way. I got a laptop, my phone broke so I got a new one, bladedadeda. **

***ducks to avoid the rotten tomatoes being thrown my way***

**Also, it's short. You probably hate me for that, too. **

**Kay, couple things that may or may not be relevant to you (you wonderful, amazing, beautiful readers who I totally don't deserve):**

**1) I'm going to change my Penname. I wanted to change it a while ago, but I wanted to wait til I uploaded something so people would vaguely recognise who I am. Not that they would; it's been, what, nine months? This chappy is practically a baby! Anyway, you'll learn to recognise me as Professor Cheesecake from now on. **

**2) I have Twitter, Tumblr and DeviantART! And, in that order, I am RynMoSi, http : / / www . tumblr . com / blog / ihopethisdoesntgotowaste, and TheGirlWhoIsATinyGal. Warning, though, in the time that I have been away, I've been bitten by the Glee bug. So that'll basically take over tumblr...(although you can pretty much blame Darren Criss for my Glee obsession. He could probably be in Twilight and I'd watch it religiously)...and so this is the perfect bridge to my next topic, which is...**

**3) I may or may not write a DP/Glee crossover. Depends on your reaction and my time. I have it kind of planned out, so all I have to do is write it.**

**4) TO MY BEAUTIFUL REVIEWERS. MY GOD. IF IT WEREN'T FOR YOU GUYS I WOULDN'T BE UPLOADING THIS AND I WOULDN'T BE ABUSING CAPSLOCK TO EXPRESS MY LUUUUUUUURV FOR Y'ALL. I HAVE 71 REVIEWS, YOU GUYS, THAT AVERAGES AT AROUND NINE PER CHAPTER. MY GOD. There was actually somebody who PM'd me, months ago (and to whoever it was, I'm sorry, it seems automatically deleted it. But this chappy? Totally for you. Like, seriously. That PM gave me warm and fuzzy feelings inside.)**

**5) I am really sorry for making you wait so much. I may just be the worst author in FF history. **


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